80 REPORT — 1860. 



localities, on the southern side of this nxis, limestone frequently intervenes between 

 the underlying quartz-rocks and the overlying gneissose strata ; and the limestones, 

 scattered in small patches among the metamorphic rocks of the north of Ireland, oc- 

 cupy this position with reference to the rocks of this character. The arrangement of 

 these rocks in this part of Ireland, as regards position, is as follows : the lowest quartz- 

 rocks succeeded by limestones, which are not persistent, but upon which, when present, 

 great masses of chloride gneiss are seen having usually a S.E. dip, often the result of 

 reversed flexures. Through these rocks, which are the Irish representatives of the 

 strata of the Grampians, numerous trap dykes occur. 



Notes on the Geology of Captain Palliser's Expedition in British North 

 America. By Dr. Hector. 



The following remarks are explanatory of a section commencing at Lake Winnipeg, 

 continued along the basin of the Saskatchewan River to the Rocky Mountains, and 

 from thence to Vancouver's Island. This section is only intended to represent the 

 more general results of this geological exploration, as a preliminary to the reports 

 which are in preparation. 



The rocks east of Lake Winnipeg have been fully described by geologists. They 

 are a part of the so-called Laurentine chain, and consist of granite and metamorphic 

 rocks. On these lie Silurian limestones, cherty, and of magnesian character, with 

 corals and shells, easily referable to Silurian types. Above these Mr. Hind has found 

 Devonian strata, of which, however, I saw no trace farther south. The supposed line 

 of their outcrop is marked by salt springs. 



The first well-defined strata in the Prairie country occur 150 miles west of Red 

 River, and are indurated olive shales, with ferruginous bands and traversed by veins 

 of clay ironstone, with a few small fossils, chiefly fish-scales, and a small, neat species 

 of nucula. They are a deep-water deposit. 



At the elbow of the Saskatchewan River, the banks are formed of purple laminated 

 clays, with lines of Septaria of various sizes. These Septaria yield fossils, which are truly 

 cretaceous forms. The most common are Bacidites and Inocerami. These Septaria 

 clays are also deep-sea deposits. They are again met with on the north branch of 

 the Saskatchewan, 150 miles to north-west, and the course of this river is for some 

 distance determined by these soft beds. At the Snake Portage, in lat. 54° N., 1 

 thought I observed them overlaid by thick grits and clays, which must be next de- 

 scribed ; but of this junction I am not certain, and the dip is so slight that they may 

 be even underlaid by these grits. 



The latter strata, in beds often 200 feet thick, form high ridges, which range north 

 and south, crossing both Saskatchewans, and also the Red Deer River, at the Nick 

 Hills. They form mainly two parallel ranges, and between them occur clays with 

 coal or lignite beds from 2 to 10 feet thick, and consistent in their strike from north- 

 west to south-east. This coal is used at Fort Edmonton, and burns pretty well. 

 Some vegetable impressions, like those of cypress and dicotyledonous leaves, are found 

 in the shale, but no other fossils. 



As these coal-beds and shales occur in the river-beds, and at low levels compared 

 with the surrounding prairie, it is manifest that the surface-beds of which these are 

 composed, are of later age; but whether conformable with them or not, I am unable 

 to say. 



To the south-east of the elbow of the Saskatchewan, at the base of the Coteau de 

 Prairies, and at a locality on the Souris River known as the Roche Percee, is a group 

 of marls, with limestone bands, containing so much iron as to weather of a bright ver- 

 milion colour, and ash-coloured arenaceous clays, with their bands of lignite and 

 silicified wood. Selenite crystals are abundant in these marls, often clustered in stel- 

 late forms. They are mixed with bands of grit, from a few feet to 30 feet in thick- 

 ness ; and these being generally of a soft nature, with indurated portions, weather out 

 in the most grotesque forms. 



On the higher grounds traversed by Battle River, and again on Red Deer River, 

 where they are seen to rest on the great lignite group, are also beds of marl, lime- 

 stones with iron like those of the Roche Percee, beds of lignite and true brown coal, 

 with silicified trees, and abundance of fossils of an estuarine character. Among these 

 latter are oysters, a good deal like the Pacific species, Mytili, Cyprina, and other 



